Maneka Gandhi, inviting controversy, said that the role of men in gender sensitisation was critical since “all the violence is male-generated”. Violence against women has become a prominent topic of discussion in India in recent years. Politicians and media have placed great focus on the issue due to continuously increasing trends. However, this ‘so called’ feminist is forgetting that one woman causes threat to another woman. A mother in law who is a woman pressurizes couple for having male child. She is the one who demands dowry on behalf of the family. She only decides the fate of daughter-in-law in her house. The male counterparts hardly have any opinion or voice in this regards either he is a husband or son. The violence begins here. In some cases, husband and in-laws will attempt to extort a greater dowry through continuous harassment and torture which sometimes results in the wife committing suicide. Dowry is illegal in India, but it is still common practice to give expensive gifts to the groom and his relatives at weddings which are hosted by the family of the bride. Women are not always the only primary victims of dowry deaths. In some cases, children are also killed along with their mothers.

Female infanticide is the elected killing of a newborn female child or the termination of a female fetus through sex-selective abortion. In India, there is incentive to have a son, because they offer security to the family in old age and are able to conduct rituals for deceased parents and ancestors. In contrast, daughters are considered to be a social and economic burden by their own female members of the family. Being female, grandmother craves for grandson but not granddaughter. This is an example of dowry system. The fear of not being able to pay an acceptable dowry and becoming socially ostracized can lead to female infanticide. Female foeticide is the elected abortion of a foetus. Female foeticide occurs when a family has a strong preference for sons over daughters, which is a common cultural theme in India. Modern medical technology has allowed to determine the gender of a child while the child is still a feotus. Once these modern prenatal diagnostic techniques determine the gender of the feotus, families then decide to abort the foetus based on gender. If they decide to abort the feotus after discovering it is female, they are committing female foeticide.

There is no doubt that woman of this country are suffering, but why to bring gender and always showcase that men are demons? Look at women like Indrani Mukerjea and Radhe Maa and what they have done. There are such women who cheat men and also falsely implicate them in heinous crime. Indrani’s affair proves the generalisation is false, though it may be true in large number of cases. The proposals, selections using social media sites are undesirable. The activists should fight against such media to control black mail and gross abuse of woman and porn poisoning young minds. What is essential is a vigorous publicity cautioning girls not to fall prey for criminal minds. These demons live in all humans, and are bought out due to various reasons. So, let’s teach kids to respect each other and not make it gender specific. All girls are not angels as all men are not demons. Let the next generation be better. Such sweeping remarks are unwarranted, that too from a minister.

The initiative that ministry has collaborated with the social media platform, Facebook, to identify 100 women across the country who made a difference to their communities, is appreciable. But most of the time, media highlighted only one aspect of violence against women and gave an impression abroad that Indian society is insensitive to the fairer sex. After international news reported the gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus that occurred in Delhi, in December 2012, Delhi experienced a significant increase in reported rapes. The number of reported rapes nearly doubled from 143 reported in January–March 2012 to 359 during the three months after the rape. After the Delhi rape case, Indian media has committed to report each and every rape case.

Domestic violence is abuse by one partner against another in an intimate relationship such as dating, marriage, cohabitation or a familial relationship. Domestic violence is also caused by spousal abuse, battering, family violence, dating abuse and intimate partner violence (IPV). Domestic violence can be physical, emotional, verbal, economic and sexual abuse. It can be subtle, coercive or violent. In India, 70 per cent of women are victims of domestic violence. Out of which most of them are victims of mother-in-law and sister-in-law. About 38 per cent of Indian men admit that they have physically abused their partners, but no surveys are done on females abusing females.

Every 9 minutes, a case of cruelty is committed by either of husbands or a relative of the husband or parents of husband. Cruelty by the husband or his relatives is the greatest occurring crime against women. In 2011 – 2012, there was a 7.5 per cent increase in cruelty by husbands and relatives. In West Bengal, there were 19,865 cases, accounting for 18.7 per cent of the national total, and in Andhra Pradesh, there were 13,389 cases, accounting for 12.6 per cent of the national total. Many of these cases were filed against men using 498a are false and no actions are usually taken against women even if they are proven wrong. This is one of the major factors for married men’s suicide in India which comes to 1 in every 9 minutes. Ministers like Maneka Gandhi needs to understand that in most of the cases, women are the most nagging creatures who incite anger in other women and also in men.